It is late at night here in Indiana, so I just would like to write a few sentences explaining why I believe Politico is such an awful website.
Politico is supposedly a non-partisan website, but it is pretty clear to those inclined to pay attention that it is not. The number of stupid articles and pure innuendo pieces that constitute that site's political analysis is amazing.
Glenn Thrush has a piece on the site now (7/27/09) about how Nancy Pelosi is one of the most reviled figures in Washington and portrays her as an arrogant, indifferent , out-of-touch politician in the process. The RNC could not have crafted a better smear job on her, and not surprisingly statements from conservative blowhards like Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin (in what universe are they legitimate political commentators?) and the NRCC abound.
To refute this trash is a real chore, as the claims are absurd at best. Boehner has much lower approval ratings and conservatives have tried to paint Pelosi as an "elitist" for years to no avail. San Francisco is every bit as American and patriotic as anywhere else in the country and the city is a crown jewel of America, a rare bastion of tolerance and forward thinking. But these concepts are scary to conservatives, who thrive on stoking division among Americans and advocating repression of minority groups (like homosexuals and Muslims).
The comments on the Politico forums are no different than what you would find on Townhall or Free Republic. I registered there to try to bring back some sanity but find myself quickly frustrated and resorting to bomb-throwing to counter the egregious and head-scratching statements I encounter.
It is easy to minimize the importance and efficacy of a site like Politico and just ignore what it has to say altogether, but we do so at our own peril. Progressives must win the media and messaging wars, and it starts on the message boards of news and political sites. We cannot allow them to be run over by conservative troglodytes and crazies.
That is all I can muster at this time. Hopefully we can start a good debate here about what I wrote.